This invention relates most particularly to the art of street hockey in which a ball or puck contacts a wooden or plastic blade and generally bounces off.
Its been desirable in this art to provide blades for the hockey sticks which cut down on wind resistance. Such a blade is shown in U.S. Design Patent No. 237,636 issued to Raymond W. Leclerc Nov. 11, 1975 which shows a plurality of oval shaped openings in the blade. The ovals are close to the upper edge of the blade, have their longitudinal axes parallel to the longitudinal axis of the blade and decrease in size from the toe to the heel. While these openings do decrease air resistance, their positioning and shape are not in the strike zone on the blade and thus the ball or puck would not normally contact the area of the blade having the openings in it.
Another structure as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,240 issued to Daniel G. Haddad, Feb. 28, 1978 shows a blade formed in a honeycomb/like matrix with various curvatures. It is stated that this not only reduces air resistance, but also imparts to the puck "english" in both the horizontal and vertical directions. As disclosed therein the honeycomb matrix is formed from a plurality of interconnecting plates oriented either perpendicular or parallel to the length of the blade. Each plate has a portion of greatest thickness, a width, and a length; the greatest thickness being substantially less than the width. The length and the greatest thickness are oriented generally parallel to the contact surface.
In addition, in the prior art there are numerous blades with flat surfaces. Flat surfaces tend to make the ball bounce away so that the player does not have great control over it.
It is desirable to have the blade designed such that it allows a player to trap the ball and hold the ball on the stick while running or maneuvering.